Kev's Tall Tales

Rosario or bust

kevin_sanderson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:02:00 GMT

A tearful goodbye to Bs As on an overcast Saturday afternoon and then it as onto the bus to the town of Rosario. Karen, another student from Expanish, is travelling with us and we´were looking forward to some chilled times as we travel into the country.

We blew into Rosario in the middle of a full on storm and a footy match so it took hours to get a cab out of the bus station! The hostel in Rosario also proved less than chilled when the receptionist looked blankly at us when we asked for our beds in the mixed dorm we had booked and said You´re ok but I don´t know where you will sleep to myself and Rob.

Seemed some Portena girls had booked in but were refusing to share with men! The owner turned up ( and earned himself the nickname Mr Syphallis due to his haggard features and lechurous behaviour!) and after a heated argument with them proposed that we stay at his apartment for the night! Kind of wierd as we slept in his kids´room- they were away... but at least it was quiet. He then went out for the night and turned up even more orse for wear in the morning to take us back to the hostel.

Rosario was sunny and a walk by the river and a large lunch soon sorted us out. Our room seemed great and the sounds of a choir singing from the church next door filled the dorm as we got ready for a nice long parilla in the local restaurant recommended by Mr Syphallis. However as it was bank holiday a horde of guys turned up a midnight then hit the town- crashing into our dorm at eight- nine in the morning- smoking and reading the paper!

Next was Cordoba- home of the Argentine flag and for me a stinking cold! Watched dancers strut their stuff to dance music on the monument to the flag and felt a little uncomfortable looking at a huge plaque which read " The Mavinas ¿Falkland Isles? forever Argentine"

After two cities we headed into the country to Hostel Tinktinkie for hiking and fresh air in the mountains and to enjoy the strange beauty of the town of Belgrano which has its own Oktoberfest as it was colonised by Germans and Austrians who loved the alpine feel of the place.

German toilets

kevin_sanderson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:36:00 GMT

Two weeks of luxury in the Art Deco hotel was leaving the bank balance a bit the worse for wear so booked an apartment share with Expanish with an argentine girl called Carolina.

All seemed well the apartment was a turn of the century building close to Recoleta and Av Santa Fe. The rooms were small but at least I had my own- the sheets ere threadbare but seemed clean. The bathroom was experience a German toilet allowed perusal of one´s movements... nice!

Using the shower on the first morning the tap fell off and I broke a glass all over the wet floor while trying to rtrieve it! Once finally in the shower the ater as chilly and the shower curtain stuck to you through out the shower- and an outline on the curtain seemed to indicate it had done this to others and for some time- shudder!

We shared with another Brit Danielle who was pleasant enough in English but insisted speaking bad spanish most of the time which tended to cause me to walk off in disgust disguised as fatigue while Rob attempted to persevere with her.She told us her sheets were simply turned around when she took the room from someone else and that had been three weeks earlier!!

Never thought I would say this but sfter this place I welcomed hostels as luxury! I can forgive much with clean sheets and a good hot shower!

Mate and Dulce de Leche and other sins

kevin_sanderson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:19:00 GMT

Ok maybe we should all have been speaking Spanish not English with each other but together the friends we met at Expanish certainly helped us experience real Argentine culture. Such as Mate- introduced to us by our teacher Eduardo- a herbal drink introduced to the Spanish by the indiginous people and now a national obsession even more so in Uraguay! The yerba mate leaves are drunk from a cup called the mate through a special metal straw called a bombilla. hot water and sugar is added and it is shared with friends and is all very sociable. The taste however is... a love it or hate it thing a bit like marmite!

It´s kind of like green tea mixed with tobacco but lots of sugar helps!

Drinkin it in the mellow rustic surroundings of the Cumana cafe off Av Sante Fe ith friends and tostadas was the perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

I loved it - it has a mellow caffeine like effect and is also thought to suppress the appetite- which you need when it comes to the land of Dulce de Leche! An addictive mix of condensed milk and sugar- which when introduced to me by Karen and Sarah has led me to abandon cocolate in search of this greater high... imagine giving up marijuana for crack!

The stuff is everwhere and cheap too- you can have it for breakfast, snack, lunch or dinner- as a spread on bread, in biscuits, in cakes or ice cream! And some Swedes I know or attempting to mix the stuff with meatballs to create a new Superfood!! Madness! Ok I´m off to get some more from the store now!

Learning Spanish

kevin_sanderson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:02:00 GMT

Two weeks in the language school grew to four which then grew to five weeks as we became more and more ambitious with what we wanted to learn. From simply wanting to ask for a bus ticket we now wanted to have full on conversations about love life and politics! A tad ambitious! Maybe!

There were times of excitement when someone understood what you were trying to say on the street or in a cafe but also real downs too- who can forget that shitty Tuesday when everyone seemed ready to give it all in and go home! And how dare the Spanish language have irregular verbs or more than one word for something!! And why is it some waiters don´t understand what a cafe doble is????

After leaving Bs As I really did not want to do anymore Spanish but I´m now back into it although its still tough but who can learn a language without lots of blood sweat and tears... not me! and especially not in 5 weeks!

Uraguay

kevin_sanderson — Thu, 1 Oct 2009 23:51:00 GMT

What do you get if you mix 10 Expanish students and Montevideo- capital of Uraguay? Hmmm a very drunken night- surpise surprise!

Colonia- a small but beautifully relaxed town full of old colonial buidings and wonderfully preserved vintage cars... great place to get lost andering although it´s not that big.

Montevideo after a short bus journey- 4 hours- had an enormous seafront that seemed to go on for miles- great seascape but little else on the front except for high rises.

So we all hit the local bars at the scandelously earlier time of eight.

Considering most people dont het out til Midnight this led to ten rather drunken students and a very amused bar staff at the local bar who started to give us free cocktails just to see what ould happen... which was silly dancing to swedish pop and then... oblivion.

As we all staggered hback to the hostel for seven or eight little did we know the clocks had changed and we had to check out in only an hour or two!

Needless to say we saw little of MV the next day except for a political march by the beach and various cafes in order to eat vast amounts of carbs to soak up the alcohol!

Hitting the town

kevin_sanderson — Wed, 9 Sep 2009 07:30:00 GMT

First day in Buenos Aires so we hit the streets after a substantial breakfast which included fruit and wholemeal bread, maybe this healthy diet business won´t be so hard after all. Although there were some nice crossant type things called mediolunas which are nice but not good for the digestion I´m sure!! Still need to work out how I do a workout in my hotel room... we´ll see!

Had a long walk round the city which seems cool, but after a while one building/ cobbled street looks like another!! Oh and watch out for the dog poo it´s everywhere! So many dogs here! Had a quick shower and hit the restaurants. Lomo which is filet steak is the thing to eat here and why not!

Argentine were playing Peru in the playoffs for the wolrd cup so the streets were deserted and every restaurants was empty except for waiters mesmerised my vast TV screens showing the action. After a long walk found a place with a real rustic feel even though the menu s seemed to have different prices depending whether they were in English or Spanish. Hmmmm

Lomo was fantastic so we hit a bar- there was a great drag show on the highlight being a guy/ girl doing the theme from Phantom of the Opera- only both parts!! I a great split outfit! Chatted to some locals and made our first silly mistake in Spanish (of many I´m sure) When asked what our nameswere Rob replied Me Lama Robert which translates as "I lick myself Robert". For all you fans of Spanish out there it should have been "me llama (pronounced shama) Robert.

Also had our first discussion re the Falklands but all in good humour with a guy who looked just like Jesus and who wasn´t even Argentine! He was Spanish.

These were very insistent we went to the next club- Club Amerika- but as it was 5am already and the club didin´t finish til 9am we decided that we had had enough! Argentinians obviously have greater staying power and they carried on.

Touchdown in South America!

kevin_sanderson — Wed, 9 Sep 2009 02:52:00 GMT

Upgrading our seats meant the flight flew by- excuse the pun! More legroom for old longlegs here was great and meant I even caught up on some shut eye as well as a few movies! Soppy girly ones naturally!

I would love to say Rio was a whirlwind of fiestas and booze but we merely stepped out of the airport terminal for five mins into the damp tropical night looking for our hotel which was actually on the fourth floor of the airport itself. So after an exhausting minute lift ride we arrived at our hotel room! Very excited to see an enormous curtain covering the far end of the room we rushed over to admire views of aircraft taking off and landing through what must surely be triple glazing given how quiet it was... only to find a concrete wall behind the curtain covered in a tacky mural of a tropical scene- nice.

The next day a short 3 hour flight took us from the warmth of tropical Rio to Buenos Aires and a chilly early spring evening. Walking through the streets I had this eery feeling we had got back to the beginning of the year and it was March! Usually I guess we leave cold rainy wintry Blighty for warmer climes not the other way around!

Everyone was wrapped up in thick dark winter coats and it quickly became clear that we would need to layer up the clothes we had brought to keep warm at night although the days were often sunny.

Leaving London

kevin_sanderson — Sat, 5 Sep 2009 04:14:00 GMT

Pack light they said...

only take the essentials...

don´t forget the first aid kit... and a pen knife... and get some wickable shirts/ t-shirts... and some gaffa tape...

Gaffa tape? For what? and what is a wickable shirt?

Spent days/ weeks in and out of every adventure/ outdoor store in London and spent a fortune on wickable wear etc! If you need to know the current stock of any branch of Blacks in London you know who to ask! As for wicking I could write a book...

What does it take to pack a 65 litre backpack...

Three compressable plastic packing bags, two pizzas, three attempts to fit it all in, a bag of Sensations crisps, olives, chicken wings and two bottles of Rose wine...

No wonder it took til 3am!

Feeling rather hazy and full of butterflies we both marched up the road to the tube station- declaring that we had packed well and our rucksacks were light as a feather!

By the time we reached the airport we were desperate for a trolley but wouldn´t admit it!

The flight was 12 hours and yes we did upgrade but only to world travellor plus- so we slunk enviously past first class and made the most of our extra few inches legroom and threw peanuts at the passengers in economy!

Rio was a late arrival and after a little confused wandering out on to the airport´s concourse in the tropical night we located our hotel all the way on the third floor of the airport building itself.

Deep in the middle of the building our room was totally sound proofed from the noise of planes but a large curtain at one end did alarm me- a quick peak behind it revealed a lovely mural of a pastoral scene. Mmmm very Hilda Ogden-esque.

Next stop Buenos Aires!